


would you be so kind as to fall in love with me?

by buckydarling



Category: Newsies (1992), Newsies - All Media Types, Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: "your mail keeps coming to my address" au, Awkward Flirting, F/F, Meet-Cute
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-15
Updated: 2018-03-15
Packaged: 2019-03-31 18:00:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,830
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13980456
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/buckydarling/pseuds/buckydarling
Summary: Kath gets mail that's not addressed to her.





	would you be so kind as to fall in love with me?

**Author's Note:**

> THIS IS A VERY LATE GIFT
> 
> also i've never written newsbians it's probably terrible
> 
> anyway
> 
> enjoy i guess

The  _ thwump  _ on the doormat outside the apartment effectively woke the cat, whose yowling in turn was enough to snap Kath out of whatever it was she was working on; if she was being honest with herself, she wasn’t really sure what it was she was working on. Some report for work? If she’d zoned out that much, it meant she’d been working for too long that morning already. She could practically hear Jack admonishing her in her head.  _ It’s a Saturday, Kath, lighten up! Have fun!  _ Snorting and shoving Jack Kelly’s voice to the back of her brain, Kath stood up from her chair, stretched, and walked to the front door to grab the mail from the doormat.

 

She sorted through the usual content; bills went in a pile on the counter, spam went in the paper bag she used for recycling, personal items (few and far between in this day and age, but still nice to receive) went tucked under her arm to read. Something had come from Crutchie in Scotland, stuffed in a thick parchment envelope plastered with stamps and his familiar scrawl, and she smiled, setting it aside to read in a moment. 

 

It was the catalogue at the bottom of the stack that stopped her.

 

_ Pointe Magazine,  _ it read in large black letters, a glossy photo of a graceful looking ballet dancer splashed across the cover. Kath frowned; she’d never danced a day of ballet in her life, and she’d certainly never looked into a magazine like this. Flipping it over, she peered at the back cover.  _ Sarah Jacobs. 514 W 184th St, Apt. 4C, Washington Heights, Manhattan.  _

 

Kath sighed; it was for the apartment above her. The postman must have mixed up the addresses. Stuffing her feet into a pair of sandals and shrugging a sweater on over her t-shirt, Kath scratched Eloise on the head before jogging up the stairs to deliver the wayward magazine. 

 

Her knock on the door of Apartment 4C was answered almost immediately by a kid who couldn’t have been older than twelve with dark curls and bright blue eyes. “Who are you?” he asked curiously, and Kath scrambled for what to say. She obviously wasn’t talking to Sarah Jacobs. 

 

“I, uh, I’m looking for--” she started, but a voice from inside the apartment cut her off.

 

“Les, what have I told you about answering the door for strangers?” Kath searched for the source of the voice, and then every part of her brain short-circuited as the prettiest girl she’d ever seen walked out of the back hall to stand in the doorway. 

 

She was a little shorter than Kath, with soft brown hair pulled back in a ribbon and warm eyes. She wore leggings and a flowy sweater, and she walked lightly on the balls of her feet - like Race did, Kath observed suddenly, when he was barefoot. Like a dancer. This must be Sarah, she thought absently, trying to snap herself out of where she was probably frozen. 

 

“Are you Sarah Jacobs?” she asked, and the girl - Sarah, then - nodded, looking a little suspicious. 

 

“Yeah. And you are?” she asked, and Kath held out the magazine. 

 

“I live in the apartment downstairs. Postman must have mixed up our addresses,” she explained, “and I got this in my mail today.” Sarah took the magazine, smiling brilliantly, and that --

 

Well, that was another problem. Kath forced herself not to go weak in the knees as Sarah spoke. “Thanks so much! I was looking for this,” she said. She smiled slyly. “Never got your name, though.” Kath blinked. 

 

“Oh! I’m Katherine, but people call me Kath,” she said, holding out a hand, and Sarah shook it, smiling warmly. 

 

“Well, I have to get this dumbass ready for a basketball game,” she said, patting Les’s head, “but it was nice to meet you, Kath! Thanks for returning the mail.”

 

“Anytime,” Kath responded, meaning it, and practically sprinting back down to her apartment the moment Sarah shut the front door. 

 

She flopped on her couch face down and groaned, startling Eloise.  _ Kath,  _ she thought to herself,  _ you fucking useless lesbian.  _

 

+

 

Mail didn’t come again until Monday, but when Kath got home from work and shuffled through the pile of envelopes that had been left on her stoop, there was another piece of mail for Sarah Jacobs on the list. 

 

This time, it was a letter much like the one Kath had received from Crutchie: a thick parchment-style envelope plastered with stamps. It was from someone named Antonio, with the return address listed as out in...Kath squinted at the writing.  _ Italy?  _ Wow. Kath trudged upstairs once again to 4C, knocking on the door and waiting patiently. This time, the door was opened by Sarah herself, this time dressed in a leotard under baggy sweatpants; her hair was coiled in a neat bun. She smiled. “Kath, right?”

 

Kath blushed, then hated herself for blushing. “Yeah! Uh, the postman got our addresses mixed up again.” She handed over the letter, not missing the way Sarah’s eyes lit up as she saw the name on the envelope. Kath’s heart sank; of course Sarah was dating someone. She was too pretty not to be. This guy Antonio was probably her boyfriend. She snapped herself out of her disappointment as Sarah spoke again. 

 

“Thanks! I’ve been expecting this in the mail for a few days,” she explained, waving the letter, “and I was wondering where it’d gotten off to.” Kath forced a smile. 

 

“Glad I could help!” she responded. “Hopefully it doesn’t happen again. Wouldn’t want you to lose something important.”

 

Something Kath couldn’t place flickered in Sarah’s eyes. “Yeah,” she responded, “hopefully.” A shout of something unintelligible from the back of the apartment caught her attention. “I have to go. See you around, Kath.” 

 

“Bye,” Kath said, right as the door was shut in her face.

 

_ Damnit.  _ That had been a little awkward. Hopefully the mail wouldn’t be mixed up again, so Kath would be able to forget about this stupid crush she was already developing that was pretty much destined to go nowhere.

 

+

 

Despite her hopes, more mail for Sarah arrived in Kath’s mail the next day. 

 

+

 

It happened the day after that, too.

 

+

 

By the fifth day, Kath was starting to be convinced it was on purpose. Sarah’s door opened, and Kath spoke before she could say anything. “I assume you already know why I’m here,” she sighed, and Sarah grinned. 

 

“Actually,” she said, “I can return the favor today. Something in my mail belongs to you.” Kath laughed in surprise.

 

“Really?” she asked, and Sarah nodded. 

 

“You want to come in?” she asked, and Kath nodded, stepping inside the apartment and trying not to be creepy as she looked around. Little details popped out to her as she observed: the pointe shoes hanging next to a dusty baseball cap on hooks by the door, a beat-up and heavily annotated copy of  _ Far From The Madding Crowd  _ sitting open on the kitchen table, a men’s crewneck sweater draped over a chair. There was a small wooden sign hanging above the kitchen sink with the name  _ Jacobs  _ engraved in neat letters, the Hebrew translation above it. A pot of pasta stood on the stove with a wooden spoon sitting in it, and Sarah checked it, giving it a quick stir with a neat flick of her wrist before walking over to the counter, where the mail sat in a neat pile. 

 

She pulled out a familiar looking envelope - it was another letter from Crutchie. Kath smiled as Sarah handed it to her, turning it over in her hands and running a light finger over the familiar scrawl. “Thank you,” she said gratefully to Sarah. “I’ve been expecting this in the mail, I was wondering where it’d gotten off to.” Sarah smiled.

 

“Of course!” she responded, waving off Kath’s thanks with a hand. She noted the name on the corner -  _ Charlie Morris.   _ “That your boyfriend?” she asked hesitantly. 

 

Kath almost felt bad afterwards for immediately bursting out laughing. Sarah furrowed her brow. “What is it?” she asked, and Kath shook her head.

 

“No, god, sorry,” she laughed, “I shouldn’t laugh. No, Charlie’s one of my best friends.” She shrugged. “We’re also two of the gayest people on the planet, so no, we’re not dating.” Sarah giggled, blushing.

 

“That would explain it, yeah,” she laughed, then facepalmed a little. “God, that was a bit heteronormative of me to assume you were dating. Sorry,” she mumbled, and Kath smiled. 

 

“You don’t have to apologize,” she reassured Sarah, who met her gaze and grinned shyly. “Anyway,” Kath continued, feeling a sudden burst of confidence, “I’ll admit I assumed the same thing when you got a letter from...what was his name? Antonio?” She looked down at her hands nervously before looking back up at Sarah. “Was I wrong in assuming?”

 

Sarah snorted a little. “You seem pretty smart, Kath, but yeah, you were wrong,” she answered. “Antonio is my partner at our dance studio. We’ve danced together since we were teenagers.” She smiled fondly. “I love him, but he’s practically family. He and his boyfriend are real happy together.” Kath fiddled with the letter in her hands. 

 

“And you?” she asked, before she could stop herself. Sarah smiled.

 

“Gay and single,” she responded with a small laugh, “so not attached to anyone at the moment,” she said absently, twisting a ring on her pointer finger. “But there is someone I have my eye on.” Kath felt her heart sink. 

 

“Oh?” she responded, keeping her voice light. “Really?” 

 

Sarah nodded, meeting her eyes. “Yeah. She’s real pretty,” Sarah sighed. “Really smart, and we haven’t talked a lot, but she’s easy to talk to,” She shrugged. “I just don’t know if she’d be interested in me.”

 

“Who wouldn’t be?” Kath heard herself say, before proceeding to turn bright red and regret every decision she’d ever made in her entire life. 

 

Sarah’s face didn’t, as Kath thought it would, morph into an expression of rejection or anger; instead, her mouth dropped open into a small smile. “Well in that case,” she said, “I guess I’ll just have to talk to her tomorrow.” She quirked an eyebrow and smiled. “We are neighbors, after all.” 

 

_ Oh. _

 

Kath grinned widely, but before she could say anything, her phone buzzed with her boss’s ringtone. She groaned. “I gotta go, Sarah. I have a shift in fifteen minutes.” Sarah smiled knowingly, walking with her to the door. 

 

“See you around, Kath,” she said from the doorway, then leaned up to press a kiss to Kath’s cheek before she shut the door. 

 

Kath stood frozen for a solid minute in the hallway before she remembered how to walk downstairs and get ready for work, smiling the whole time.

 

+

 

The next day in Kath’s mail, there was a blank envelope from Apartment 4C with a phone number and a note that said,  _ Coffee?  _

 

She grinned and grabbed a pen.

  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> lmk if you enjoyed!
> 
> tumblr: hispanicjackkelly


End file.
